Switc i



(No Model.) 2 Shee-ts8heet 1.

W. A. GLAPP. SWITCH OPERATING DEVICE:

No. 578,968. Patented Mar. 16, 1897.-

INVE/VTOI? WWW ATTORNEYS.

(No Model.) 2 Sheats-Sheet; 2. W. A. OLAPP.

SWITCH OPERATING DEVICE.

No. 578,968. Patented Max:216, 1897.

INVENTOR ATTORNEYS.

n45 NORRIS PETERS co, PHOTOMTHO. wAsmnsrow. n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

WILSON .A. CLAPP, OF PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO EDWARD L.POLLOOK, OF SAME PLACE.

SWITCH-OPERATING-DEVYICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent Iva- 578,968, dated March16, 1897. Application filed June 16, 1896. $erial1lo. 595,743. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, WILSON A. CLAPP, of Pittsfield, in the county ofBerkshire and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and ImprovedSwitch-Operating Device, of which the following is a full, clear, andexact description.

The object of my invent-ion is to provide a switch-operating device ofsimple, durable, and economic construction and applicable to any form ofsliding switch, the said device being so constructed that the switch maybe operated to open or close the same from a moving train and at apredetermined period in advance of the train entering the switch.

Afurther object of the invention is to provide a convenient-and simplemechanism for operating the shifting or trip devices for the switch, thesaid mechanism being readily applied to an engine or to a car withoutinterfering with any of its working parts.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of theseveral parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed outin the claimsf Reference is tow-be had to the accompanying drawings,forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters ofreference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a plan view of asection of track embracing the switch, theswitch being set for a siding. Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of r theswitch portion of the track, the switch being set for the main line.:Fig; 3 is apartial side elevation of the jointed trip-rail used inconnection with the switch and to be operated from the engine, cab, orcaboose. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a portion of the singletrip-rail to be placed opposite that shown in Fig. 3, and alsoillustrates a device for operating the switch by hand. Fig. 5 is adetail perspective view of the mechanism employed for operating thetrip-rails fronrthe engine, cab, or caboose; and Fig. 6 is a sideelevation of a section of the track, illustrating the trip device on theengine in the act of operating one of the triprails.

The track shown is a single track, and the siding-rails are designatedas A and the rails of the main line as B. A switch-point a is formed atone end of the siding-rail A, and a corresponding switch-point b isformed at the corresponding end of the inner main rail B. Both of thesepoints a and b are secured to bars 10 and 11, which have slidingmovement transversely of and beneath the rails.

Upon one projecting end of the sleeper nearest to the switch-points anangle-lever 12 is fulcrumed at the junction of one straight and aninclined side of the lever, as the said lever is preferably triangularin general contour, and where the two straight sides of the leverconnect the lever is pivoted to the forward sliding bar 10, or that barwhich is nearest to the main line and carries the extreme points of theswitch. The pivoted connection between the lever 12 and the sliding bar10 is designated as 13, while the connect-ion between the said lever andthe aforesaid sleeper is designated as'l i. On the same tie at theopposite end a second substantially triangular lever 15 is fulcrnmed, apin 17 be-.

in g passed through the lever in to the tie where the two straight edgesof the lever join, and

beneath the main rails; and this shaft extends beyond the outer faces ofthe rails,having secured at one end a shifting arm 19, and at the otherend a second shiftingarm 20 is attached. These two arms are so, placedon the shaft 18 that when one of them lies down parallel with and belowthe top of the tread of a rail an end of the opposite arm will extendabove the rail near which it is placed.

The rear end of the shifting arm 19, or that end opposite to the switch,is the end which is elevated, while the opposite end of the opposing arm20 is thatwhich will be elevated above the track. A rod 21 is pivoted tothereduced outer end of the shifting arm 19, while a second rod 22connects the opposing shifting lever 15 and shifting arm 20 in likemanner.

At that .side of the track near which the shifting arm 19 is placed atrip-rail O is cated. This rail is made preferably in two sections 23and 2i, as shown particularly in Fig. 3, the sections being hinged attheir outer ends to the adjacent ties and connected to each other attheir inner ends by a pin 25, passed through a longitudinal slot :26,made in one of the sections, so that the trip-rail may be presseddownward entirely belov. the track-rail parallel with which it isplaced. When this trip-rail is'in operative position,

it will extend at this point considerably above the track-rail, as shownin Fig. 6. The members of the trip-rail C are hinged at their outer endsto conveniently-located sleepers or ties. A second trip-rail D is placedat the opposite side of the track, and this trip-rail is preferably inone piece, being hinged at its forward end only to a sleeper, or at thatend which is farthest from the switch. The section 23 of thejointed-trip-rail O is connected by a pivot-pin 27 with the shifting'arm19, the pivot-pin 27 having movement in the said arm, a slot 28beingprovided either in the arm or in the section 23, the latter constructionbeing illustrated in Fig. 3.

That end of the single trip-rail D which is nearest the switch ispivotally connected by apin 29 with the opposing shifting arm 20, a slot30 being made in the trip-rail to receive the said pin, as illustratedin Fig. 4. When the trip-rail C is depressed, for example, the opposingrail D will be raised and the switch will be placed in position for thesiding or in position for the main line, as

mayhave been determined upon. The switch is adapted to be setautomatically, as heretofore stated, and this may be accomplished byproviding under the engine,-for example, a hanger 31, in which atrip-bar 32 is mounted to slide, the said trip-bar having a roller 33 ora stationary head at each end. When. this trip-bar is not ne ded, itwill be held transversely beneath the engine in such manner that itsrollers or heads will clear both of the trip-rails, as illustrated inFig. 1; and either one of the trip-rails may be depressed to setthe-switch open or closed by carrying the tripbar 32 in direction of oneor the other side of the engine, and this may be accomplished by causinga lever 34 to engage with a projection 35 at or near the center of thetrip-bar, the said lever being fulcrumed at its upper end to a suitablesupport beneath the engine. The lever 34 is connected with a horizontallever 35, preferably of the elbow type, also supported beneath theengine; and at one end of the lever 35' alink 36 is attached, having afulcrum near the center and serving as a third lever, and thislink-lever 3G is connected by a rod 37 with a hand or foot lever 38,located,for example, in the cab of the engine and operating in a rackmarked to indicate in what direction the lever must be shifted tooperate the switch of the main line or the siding.

The switch-operating 'device may be manipulated by hand, when desired,through the medium of the mechanism shown in Fig. 4, for examplc,inwhich a hand-lever 39 is fulcrumed upon the shifting arm 20, and thesaid arm is recessed at the top to receive a shoulder on the lever, thelower portion of the lever being curved.

When the switch device is to be operated automatically, the hand-lever39 is disconnected from the shifting arm 20, as shown in dotted lines inFig. 4, and will rest upon a support 40. \Vhcn, however, the hand-lever39 is carried upward and its shoulder fitted into the recess ofthe-shifting arm 20, as shown in positive lines in-Fig. 4:,this arm maybe rocked in a manner to open or close the switch. It is obvious thatone or the other of the shifting arms will at all times have anupwardlyinel-in-ed position and that'the connecting-rod attached to thelowered arm will be below the center of the arm. Consequently the switchwill remain in the position in which it is set.

I-Iavin g thus described my invention, I I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent- 1. A railway-switch having main rails andpivoted switch-points, a transversely-sliding bar connected to theswitch-points, two levers fulcrumed adjacent to the bar and pivotallyconnected thereto, a rod connected to each lever, a rock-shaft, an armfixed to each end of the rock-shaft, to which arms the rods arerespectively connected, a trip rail having-one end slotted and receivinga pin on one of the arms, the trip-rail being pivoted at its remainingend, two additional trip-rails respectively slidably connected to eachother at their inner ends and one of the said additional trip-railsbeing slidably connected to the remaining arm, the outer end of eachadditional trip-rail being pivoted to the railwaybed, and a leverpivoted to one of the arms and capable of swinging to engage the armwhereby the lever may be turned to extend outwardly from the arm,substantially as described.

2. A railway-switch having main rails and pivoted switch-points, meansfor shifting the switch-points, two rods connected and actuating saidmeans, a rock-shaft, a shifting.

arm fixed to each end of the rock-shaft, the shifting arms beingoppositely disposed and having the rods respectively connected thereto,a trip-rail having one end slidably con- .nected to one of the shiftingarms and having the remaining end pivoted to the rail way-bed, and twoadditional trip-rails having their inner ends slidably connected witheach other and one of the additional trip-rails being connected to theremaining shifting arm, the outer ends of the trip-rails being pivotedto the railway-bed, substantially as described.

3. A railway-switch having main rails and pivoted points, a rock-shaft,a shifting arm fixed to the rockshaft, a trip-rail pivoted at one end tothe railway-bed and having a slot in its remaining end, a pin on theshifting arm and passing through the slot of the triprail, a rod pivoted130 the trip-rail and connected to the switch-points, and a leverfulcrn'med t0 the shifting arm and having a notch receiving one edge ofthe shifting arm,

the lever being capable of swinging away from the shifting arm,substantially as described.

WILSON A. CLAPP.

Witnesses:

JOHN J. RYAN, EDWARD N. RoscoE.

It is hereby certified that Letters Patent No. 578,968, granted March16, 1897, upon the application of Wilson A. Glapp, of Pittsfield,Massachusetts, for an improvement in Switch-Operating Devices, waserroneously issued to Edward L. Pollock, as owner of the entire interestin said invention; that said Letters Patent should have been issued tothe inventor, Wilson A. Glcpp and Edward L. Pollock, jointly, saidEdward L. Pollock being the assignee of one-third interest only in saidpatent, as shown by the record of assignments in this Ofiice; and thatthe said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein thatthe same may conform to the record of the case [SEAL] JNO. M. REYNOLDS,

Assistant Secretary of the Interior. Gountersigned:

S. T. FISHER,

Acting Commissioner of Pat ents.

